Dems push cost of living fix for seniors

The White House and House Democrats are pushing a plan to provide seniors with a $250 check in place of a cost of living adjustment for Social Security.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Friday morning said President Barack Obama would “renew his call” for the disbursement of these checks, which were originally part of the stimulus bill.

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This came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that she has asked the Ways and Means committee to bring Rep. Earl Pomeroy’s (D-N.D.) Seniors Protection Act to the floor during the lame duck session of Congress after the election.

“All members of Congress should join us in supporting this legislation which will be fiscally responsible and upholds our bedrock promise of economic security for our nation’s seniors,” Pelosi said in a news release.

Republicans are signaling they wont support the measure. Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the Ways and Means committee, said Friday that the difficulties seniors would face from not receiving a cost of living adjustment would “pale in comparison to the actual hardships future Social Security recipients will experience if Congress continues to ignore the program’s underlying financial problems.

“We must put Social Security on a path to long term solvency and the sooner we do so, the better it will be for both taxpayers and beneficiaries alike,” Camp said in a news release.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), dodged on whether the GOP would support the measure.

"If this were truly a priority for Washington Democrats, they would have done it before Speaker Pelosi sent the House home,” Steel said.

This is likely to be one of the high-stakes fights in Congress after the November election season that’s looking like it will deliver seismic losses to Democrats. Republicans are likely to frame the payment as more spending from Democrats, and Democrats will seek to position GOP opposition as abandoning seniors.